Sunday, September 26, 2010

Triceratopses (plural of Triceratops) was from a group of herbivorous dinosaurs called the ceratopsians, who all had 3 horns. They lived in teh Late Cretaceous Period of from 66.4 to 97.5 million years ago.

Triceratops was one of the last dinosaurs on Earth. By the time of his extinction, most others had already died out. He had survived the Tyrannosaurus and all other predators for millions of years, but whatever killed off most of the other dinosaurs, also finished him off eventually.

He was probably much like a modern day Rhinosorous today, in many ways. He would have spent most of his day grazing on low plants, and would gather in small herds, for safety (as cows do today). However, if approached (like a Rhinosaurus) he would probably become very vicious indeed, and may well have put up a good fight against Tyrannosaurus when cornered.

He could grow up to 8 metres (25 ft) long and had a long skull with a boney frill around his necy, for pretection against bites. Triceratops had 3 long horns, one on his nose, and the 2 longest ones (each more than 1m or 3ft long) above his eyes. His head alone was more than 2 metres (6ft) long, and from nose to tail, he could easily reach 9 metres (30ft). He was BIG, but Tyrannosaurus Rex was even bigger.

His huge, thick boned body made him a little slow, but his huge strength also made him fearsome, if he needed to be. his legs were short and thick, but very strong. His mouth was very much like a beak at the front, excellent for biting off chuks of plant. But in his cheeks he also had flat or rounded teeth, good for chewing plants properly before he swallowed.

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Dinosaurs Fossils

Dinosaur fossils have been known about for millennia, though their true nature was not recognized; the Chinese considered them to be dragon bones, while Europeans believed them to be the remains of giants and other creatures killed by the Great Flood.